The more I play in the sport of business, the more I realize that these 2 variables make all the difference on who wins and who doesn’t. Quality of Judgement: clarity of thought, sharp decision making, raw intelligenceIntensity of Execution: relentless action, getting things done, raw hustle I’ve met people who have one of the 2. They’re almost worse than … Read More
The Most Scarce Resource
Intelligence was thought to be the most scarce resource to lead to success. Today, that’s changing, and I want to make an argument that another resource overtakes that title. Intelligence is being “democratized”. Everyone has access to it today. What is intelligence? I think it’s simply the ability to make good decisions (learn, analyze, and pick the best option). For … Read More
Why Not Tomorrow?
Another billion dollar question that I love is: why not tomorrow? Acting with urgency is a super underrated trait. If you’re leaning towards a decision, but still feel unsure, ask yourself: why not tomorrow? List down the reasons. If those were to be resolved, then you should be doing it tomorrow, right? Okay, then turn every reason listed into a … Read More
What are you optimizing for?
I fell in love with this question a couple of years ago. Whenever someone tells me “I want to start a business.” I ask: “what are you optimizing for?” If you’re optimizing for making $10k a month in passive income without having to work much, you’d need an entirely different plan than someone who’s optimizing for making $10m in 5 … Read More
Bite More Than You Can Chew
Conventional wisdom is great to follow, if you want to be average. The great thing about working at a startup is that you’d be given responsibilities you’re unqualified for, and asked to figure it out. That discomfort causes you panic, anxiety, stress, etc. But it also is what creates growth. The feeling of soreness a day or two after a … Read More
Business Problems vs. Founder Problems
Recently, I started advising a few early stage founders and investing in a couple. I realized today after one of those sessions that there are 2 types of problems in early stage startups: business problems, and founder problems. I wrote down a few notes to discuss problems I saw with the founder’s execution: marketing, product, and hiring. I was unhappy … Read More
No Plan
“The Plan is No Plan”. This statement was repeated about 100 times in 2 weeks of camping away from civilization with a group of friends. “What’s the plan tomorrow?” => “the plan is no plan”“Are we going to this mountain?” => “the plan is no plan” We were living each day at a time. There were ideas from the days … Read More
Engine vs. Body
In the movie “Ford vs. Ferrari”, the driver of the Ford GT was advised not to push the RPM too hard, because the physical body of the car couldn’t handle how powerful the engine was. Sometimes, it feels like that’s what I’m consistently doing; pushing mental RPM to the max, and in the process putting a lot of strain on … Read More
Business is a Sport
This analogy changed the game for me. This is a brain dump of the analogy broken down into a few areas. I’ll keep updating this every now and then.
If You’re So Smart…
If you’re so smart, how come you haven’t figured out how to be happy? I heard something like this a while ago and it stuck with me. I started using it as a mental model to play tricks on my mind. If you’re so smart, how come you aren’t fit yet? If you’re so smart, how come you haven’t achieved … Read More